Rise Up: Maria Pulera's New Venture Aims to Captivate Global Audiences

Maria Pulera, the director of the Nicolas Cage’s Between Worlds movie has established ‘Rise Up’, a production-distribution company associated with Eric Banoun and David Hillary. Rise has offices in Los Angeles, Marbella, and Tel Aviv, and it plans to distribute its movies in Europe, Asia, and the United States. It is being financed by a Spanish-Israeli fund.    “Between Worlds” is the first production that Rise Up created; it was presented at the Cannes Festival, and Voltage Pictures bought the rights to it. The company is also lined up to make “El Matador”, a Spanish neo-noir by Pulera, shooting in Marbella this July. Apologetic, “El Matador is centred on the internal crisis of a gun-for-hire who is being chased by the police.    Other planned films in Rise Up’s lineup are the biopic “Johnny Thunders,” the contemporary noir thriller “The Clean Up,” post the World War II picture “No-No Boy,” and of age story “When the Nines Were Sixes” In television, Rise Up is devel...